time!! like grains of sand and things that fly and other things you can't hold
hi hello hey ocean foam and sun rays,
Summer is in full swing! I can't quite believe it is July already. It feels like part of getting older is that time just moves faster and faster, spilling like grains of sand through my palms.
What a marvel to hold time in your hands for even a second though :)
A Recap of June
I had four shows last month! Each one was so beautiful in its own way.
My first show of June was at Brooklyn Pride, where several small kids very excitedly asked for pictures with me afterwards. Someone also came up to me after my set and told me that I performed like a "confident shy person", and I reveled in this new language to describe myself.
Backstage at the Keepsake House show, discussing stage fright with the other performers on the lineup, I came to the sudden realization that I couldn't remember the last time I'd been actually nervous to get up on stage and sing. I had arrived to the other side of stage fright without really noticing, having accumulated so much practice and experience with varied crowds and stages that I guess it just naturally ebbed out of me. What a marvel! (Now if only I could learn this lesson with everything else I'm afraid of in other areas of my life! Over and over I must learn anew.)
Keepsake House's show was SUCH a dream, a truly gorgeous night. The coolest lineup in the world, and the biggest singalong for The Gardener that I've ever had.
Porch Stomp was also lovely, and thankfully less windy than the year before. I stuck around the Irish Arts Center Stage through the early afternoon and learned some Irish line dancing. And then finally it was Make Music New York, and I performed at the Stonewall Ball to a full park of people!
Upcoming Summer Shows
If you missed those shows don't fret! The live shows never end!! Mark your calendars!!
SUN. JULY 16th- Queer Singer/Songwriter's Night
Ginger's Bar, Park Slope, Brooklyn
Doors at 7pm, Show at 8pm
Sharing a lineup with Awkward Marina and Jackie Simmons!
FRI. AUG 25th- Opener for Jasmine Jang
pinkFROG cafe, Williamsburg, Brooklyn
My set is 7pm and Jasmine's is 7:30pm!
Happy Birthday to The Gardener <3
Next Wednesday, July 12th, marks the 4th (??!!) birthday of my first single, The Gardener. Time truly does fly.
From having my friends in the studio to sing on the chorus of the recording, to leading a singalong to close out each live show of mine, this song has helped foster little pockets of musical community in my life, and for that I am so so grateful.
Okay, I have something to confess. When I talk about this song on stage, I usually say that it's a song about friendship and community and self-love. And that is absolutely true of its current iteration!!!!! But when I first started to write it, it was very much a romantic love song (the first voice memo demo of it is a slow! ballad! can you believe??) A few weeks ago I got lunch with the person who inspired that first version of it, and we got to laugh and talk about that song and other songs I had written about them five or so years ago now, which was a new and delightful thing for me. Time! It slips and flies and also transforms into something more beautiful than you could imagine :')
Little Joys
JANELLE MONAE'S ALBUM AGE OF PLEASURE. No other album exists for me right now. I am dancing all day.
I recently returned from a week down the shore at Ocean City, NJ! Rita's water ice, skeeball, amusement park rides, the beach, mini golf, fudge and salt water taffy- a microcosm of goodness.
I went to Martha's Country Bakery twice last month!! Giant portions of the most delicious dessert!! Banana cream pie and warm marble loaf a la mode!! At one of the locations they have a DJ in the evenings!!! What a place.
This was a bit of a long one- thanks for sticking around!! We'll be back to our shorter bi-weekly emails next time.
I'm glad you're here.
Yours for as many flighty grains of sand as the universe permits us,
Em